On Social Media
By Jenni Smith, 1.22.26
I have been fighting an internal battle recently about how much to engage in social media - when to post, IF to post, and if I do - what to post. Social media, as we all know, can be both fun and a curse. Lately the curses trump the amusement (pun intended), and I feel the anxiety, FOMO, and anger that doomscrolling tends to stir up in me. As a caveat, I am aware of the potential for legalism around setting boundaries with social media, universally prescriptive. These are my own internal processes as I sort through this topic, shared in the hope that they might be helpful to someone else.
As I’ve been processing my social media use, the verse from 2 Corinthians 10: 3-6 keeps popping into my head, especially the phrase “We will take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.” The Message version says “The world is unprincipled. It’s dog eat dog out there. The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way - never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”
For me, taking thoughts captive in relation to social media means resisting the instinct to use it like everyone else. Social media is full of half-truths, contradictions, and distorted narratives that pull people away from Jesus. I’ve become aware of how my main instinct is to use social media like everyone else - throwing out a news link without context, reacting emotionally to something that happened 5 minutes ago without learning more details, or posting a snarky comment. When I notice that part of myself, I don’t think it’s bad, these behaviors actually make a lot of sense. However, it’s not me operating from my core self, the truest version of who God made me to be.
Using language from Internal Family Systems, I’ve started calling that reactive part Justice Jenni (imagine me in a superhero cape with the Constitution and Bible in hand - corny, but accurate). Justice Jenni defends the vulnerable, hates unfairness, has evidence to back it up, and needs to be heard. She isn’t wrong all the time but sometimes she can be smug, unnuanced, and angry. I believe she has an important role, but only when my core self is leading. When my core self is present, I can be calm, confident, curious, clear, and more connected. My goal is to let that grounded core self guide Justice Jenni, rather than the other way around.
It’s also helpful to name how social media makes us feel. In a study about addictive behavior by neurobiologists, heavy social media use causes social comparison and FOMO (anxiety), dopamine-driven reinforcement (compulsive posting), negative rumination (depression), identity dependence on feedback (self-worth), and overstimulation (sleep loss, higher stress hormones). Chuck DeGroat captures this well in a recent Substack post,
“When we feel fearful or insecure in a world marked by global unrest, economic anxiety, and cultural volatility, we are always presented with a choice. One path asks us to face our fear directly - to name it, metabolize it, and allow it to mature us. This is the slow work of wisdom, the work that eventually produces enduring character and hope. The other path tempts us to bypass our fear entirely, grasping for whatever strong voice or movement promises relief. Instead of integrating our anxiety, we outsource it. Instead of deepening resilience, we attach ourselves to borrowed power. This dynamic is as old as Genesis 3, where the human impulse in the face of vulnerability was not to trust but to grasp - reaching for something that appeared to offer control, certainty, or protection. The ancient story reminds us that unprocessed fear does not disappear, it simply seeks a new master.”
I recognize myself in that description. If I know all the angles of a particular headline, if I learn all I can about a topic or a news story, if I gather enough information, I’ll feel safer and less anxious. I am not discounting the importance of learning or being knowledgeable, but we miss the mark when we use these tools to grasp (as DeGroat describes) instead of trust. I can feel that build up inside me when I’m furiously typing away on social media, trying to convince others of why they are wrong or informing them of something that is already flooding every platform they are on. What is the purpose of this?
In his book Emotionally Healthy Spiritually, Pete Scazzero talks about how self-awareness leads us to pay attention to our thoughts, emotions, and reactions. We can’t take thoughts captive if we don’t notice them. What looks like harmless engagement may actually be driven by fear, insecurity, the need for validation, or a desire to control. These are the arguments and pretensions Paul describes in his letter. Taking these thoughts captive means naming things like “I’m safe if I know everything” or “I am what I post” and replaces them with truth. Practicing discernment is both spiritual and practical. It looks like pausing before we scroll or posting and asking: What am I seeking right now - connection, certainty, validation, or control? It means creating external boundaries like limiting notifications, setting specific times for apps or news, and avoiding passive consumption. We can also replace social media use with practices like silence, prayer, exercise, or real relationships that retrain our minds toward depth rather than stimulation. My goal is not to disengage from social media entirely (for some it could be), but to have more maturity within it. This is the goal Paul refers to, which is a maturity that is slow to react, quick to discern, less driven by fear, and more anchored in the peace of Christ.
